New IU Health emergency service hub in Bloomington aims to fill void on west side

IU Health Bloomington broke ground on its new Emergency Medical Services Headquarters last Friday. The headquarters will house administrative offices, ambulances and a vehicle service garage that will serve IU Health’s south central region, including Monroe, Lawrence and Orange counties.

The new headquarters being built near North Curry Pike and West Ind. 46 will help IU Health’s EMS reach Bloomington’s growing west side. Kelly Mullis, director for the IU Health region's emergency medical services, said that area has been difficult to reach quickly from its downtown location during rush hour.

“My first and foremost concern is always response time and making sure that we’re covering our high volume areas as much as possible and still giving what’s responsible to outlying areas,” Mullis said.

Why is a new HQ needed?

The need for a new headquarters arose because the current buildings are old and IU Health has grown, Mullis said. The educational department and leadership are in very small spaces and they’re out of space to store supplies, she said. 

“I think to give everybody a designated location and an efficient space to work in will keep us more organized and things flowing much better,” Mullis said. 

Vehicle service is another problem the new headquarters will help solve. IU Health South Central Region President Brian Shockney said the current vehicle service center is having to perform makeshift maintenance because of a lack of space, and the planned 6,000-square-foot garage will lead to more efficient service. 

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“Now they’ll have that ease of being able to get trucks in and out and be able to work on those trucks in a great way,” Shockney said during his speech at the groundbreaking.

The headquarters allows the south central region to drop from nine to seven buildings because the building will have space for administrative offices, the maintenance center and a response station for 911 calls. 

Improving emergency response times

Mullis said she hopes the new response station will help maintain or improve their current response time in the region, which she said is around 7.8 minutes. During peak hours, IU Health has as many as seven response ambulances active, she said.

Despite the coming move to a new hospital at the IU Regional Academic Health Center, EMS service will remain consistent downtown because of IU Health's response station there, Mullis said.

“We know where our volumes are for 911 calls, and we’re going to maintain a presence in those areas,” Mullis said.

Mullis, who has been involved since planning began for the headquarters in March 2019, said the process has been exciting. She said the goal was to design a building that would maximize efficiency and accommodate future growth.

IU Health allocated $12.9 million of its funding for the new Regional Academic Health Center to build the headquarters and another response station. Both buildings are set to open in December.